Average compensation for softball coaches like Oklahoma's Patty Gasso has risen 62% from '13-18UNIV. OF OKLAHOMA
There is a "different kind of arms race happening among Power Five athletics departments by spending significantly more money on coaches in so-called non-revenue sports," according to Wolken, Berkowitz & DeMeyer of USA TODAY. Data was collected for the "total compensation each of the Power Five public schools reported paying head coaches in 23 sports other than football, men's basketball and women's basketball" from '13-18. Including salaries, benefits and bonuses, the "combined compensation for those coaches grew by about 43% over that time." But the fact that compensation for coaches in "lower-profile, money-losing sports has been growing at a similar rate to football raises red flags" for some ADs who are "worried about budget crunches and for critics of a collegiate model that largely restricts athletes from receiving anything beyond their scholarship." The average compensation in softball has "increased by an average of almost 62% across the Power Five" from '13-18. In baseball, the "average head coach compensation has increased from $430,228 to $651,445" in that same time frame. In '18, at least 12 men's golf coaches "totaled more than $300,000 in compensation," while 17 women's soccer coaches and 10 men's soccer coaches "surpassed $250,000." Alabama AD Greg Byrne's department in '18 "carried the fourth-largest operating expense budget" in FBS at $166.5M. However, even he "acknowledged that the escalating salaries had directed" his recent coaching searches in baseball, rowing, volleyball and swimming "away from sitting Power Five head coaches and more toward rising assistants or coaches at the mid-major level" (USA TODAY, 8/13).
